The invention relates to a pressure-relieving facade for buildings that may be endangered by sudden pressure differentials.
Sudden pressure differentials may be caused by deflagrations, explosions or detonations, wherein the velocity of the pressure rise is lowest with deflagrations and highest with detonations. In order to prevent a sudden pressure rise from destroying the entire building, it will be necessary to provide within the facade for several "predetermined breaking points". It has been customary hitherto to provide as these "predetermined breaking points", windows with especially thin glazing. If the pressure rise within the building reached a certain value, these thin-glazed windows will burst and thus allow for a rapid pressure relief; all load-bearing wall sections will remain undamaged herein.
By the CH Letters Pat. 531,124, a solution has become known in which glass panes with the bursting characteristics of thermally pretensioned glass are used. A pointed stop is installed at the low-pressure side of every pane in such a manner that the distance to the pane is smaller than that maximum deflection of the zone of the pane below the stop, which the pane may be subjected to just short of bursting.
A precondition for such suggested solutions as known, is a sufficiently large glass area relative to the total facade, this in order to ensure a sufficiently rapid pressure relief in case of a sudden pressure rise. Such a precondition is, for instance, not given any more when the individual parts of the building form closed sectors with a facade on only one side.